Hearn's big break shows how bookies can corner the market

Bookmakers have begun to branch out, running their own tournaments and streaming them live over the internet. It is a development that will send shockwaves through traditional broadcasters and sports federations.

The promoter Barry Hearn has signed a deal with William Hill, Bet365 and Betfair to set up Championship League Snooker, paying 25 of the world's top players to compete. "The worlds of media and gambling are converging," said Betfair's managing director Mark Davies. "Consolidation of bookmakers with media companies is under way; it is a question of whether the gambling industry becomes a predator or a prey."

The implications for the future of sports media rights are enormous. "This is a very early shot across the bows of the sports and the media companies," said Hearn. "The interesting thing is that you can bypass the broadcasters and it can happen in any sport."

Analysts say sports have already cottoned on to the developments and that the rise in the value of overseas television rights for the Premier League is directly related to the hunger for betting on English matches. The Indian Premier League, the Twenty20 tournament set up by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in response to the rebel Indian Cricket League, has similarly become a lucrative proposition.

However, if betting companies were to run such competitions, sports and media bodies might find it hard to compete.

FA fumbles youth issue

The Football Association's good intentions for youth coaching are being undermined by stalling over the introduction of a senior steering group for player development. The FA last week announced a £200m investment in the grass-roots game, but two months after the former technical director Howard Wilkinson was asked to chair a youth-management group, no progress has been made. The group - a "body for a top-to-bottom unified approach to youth football" - would contain up to three representatives from each of the Premier League, the FA and the Football League, each receiving one vote, with Wilkinson receiving a vote as independent chair. But with contracts having become the responsibility of the FA's overworked director of corporate affairs, Simon Johnson, moves have hit a brick wall. Johnson says he is waiting for Wilkinson's formal confirmation that he will accept the post. However, the former Leeds United manager has received no official word. "Maybe the FA have forgotten," said one group delegate. In the meantime, no meetings over player development can take place and the piecemeal approach that has so hampered the England team continues.

Leagues apart

The FA youth-management group was the brainchild of Richard Lewis, the Rugby Football League chief executive who delivered a widely applauded strategic review of youth football last summer. Lewis also called for Football League academies to receive £180,000 each year, up from the current £138,000, from next season. But the FA's director of football development, Sir Trevor Brooking, is unhappy with several academies and Soho Square will withhold funds until the academies are subject to more accountability.

Grant's rant

An uncharacteristic outburst from Avram Grant lay behind Chelsea's fightback from a goal down at home to Arsenal last Sunday. After training on Friday the Chelsea manager kept his players in the dressing room for 20 minutes, instructing them to take responsibility for their actions and to act like men. The players were stunned but Grant's words, in the wake of Ashley Cole's disgraceful behaviour towards the referee Mike Riley two days previously, were not lost on his audience.

Excuse me, Sarkozy

France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has raised an uncomfortable Olympic issue for Gordon Brown, two days before visiting London. Sarkozy says he does not rule out a boycott of the Beijing Games, depending on the gravity of the humanitarian situation in Tibet. London, host for 2012, will hold an elaborate handover ceremony in Beijing. "We do not support a boycott of the Olympic Games," said a government spokeswoman.